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Baby Falafel

I’d been meaning to make these baby-friendly falafel for a while. They are adapted from the River Cottage Baby and Toddler Cookbook by Nicky Duffy. It’s a fairly good addition to my shelves, although the recipes only take up half of the actual book, which I feel is a bit of a cheat. Confusingly, in the book, these are actually called ‘Felafel.’

Ben loved these. I think it was the dried apricots, which gives the falafel a sweetness. He loved them as a finger food.

Ingredients (Makes 18-20)

5 dried apricots

1 onion

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tin chickpeas

1 slice bread

Small bunch coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

Method

Soak the dried apricots in boiling water for a few minutes to soften them.

Finely chop the onion and garlic and fry them gently in the olive oil for around 10 minutes, until soft.

In a food processor, whizz up the bread into breadcrumbs. Add all the other ingredients and process a few times, so that you have a thick paste. It should be quite smooth, otherwise your falafel won’t hold together.

Take teaspoonfuls of the mixture and roll them into sausage shapes – these are easier for babies to hold.

At this stage, you can freeze the falafel if you like, on a baking sheet. When frozen, transfer to a freezer bag.

If frozen, defrost the falafel. Preheat the oven to 190C. Drizzle the falafel with olive oil and bake for around 18 minutes, turning halfway through cooking.

Allow to cool before serving them to your baby. We had them with pitta bread, greek yoghurt and cherry tomatoes.